Promoting health and fitness, the staff and faculty will be joining together to participate in the Warrior Wellness Challenge.
The Challenge is a fitness challenge created by Athletic Director Tony Barbone and Strength and Conditioning coach Kim Jones that promotes participation, unity, and accountability among faculty and staff from different departments. The challenge started last Wednesday.
“My mindset was to find something on campus that would unify employees so no matter what your participation level is, no matter if your group wins a lovely prize, everybody wins.” Tony Barbone, Athletic Director said. “I wanted to make a statement as a community that wellness is important.”
Individuals from a department will earn half of a point for every 30 minutes spent working out in the fitness center per day. Workouts lasting 10-20 minutes will earn one fourth of a point per visit. If every member in the department works out for a minimum of 30 minutes a day three times a week then each team member earns an extra point for their team that week. Any team member that works out four times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes will earn the entire team four extra points for the week. Any team member that works out five times a week for a minimum of 30 minutes will earn the entire team five extra points for the week.
“It’s not as though the team who loses the most weight at the end of the month wins,” Kim Jones, strength and conditioning coach said, “The goal is to get people in here as often as possible.”
Team members must sign in at the Fitness Center sign in sheet as well as on a separate Warriors Wellness Challenge check in which will track team member’s points. Team members will then state their name and team name to an available Fitness Center employee, so they can document arrival and departure times.
“The more people use the center, the more it help us out with funding and prove that we need this place.” Jones said, “If we need more equipment it’ll be easier to purchase it because we can prove that there’s a lot of traffic in here.”
There are three teams competing in the Warrior Wellness Challenge: The Facilitators, Health Science Alliance and the LRU/Library team. Health Science Alliance is being pegged as the early favorite.
“It’s more about participation,” Jones said. “It’s literally you get points for showing up whether it be for an hour or 30 minutes.”
The Health Science Alliance team members are as follows: Rory Natividad, Tony Barbone Carolyn Biedler, Kim Jones, Kari Brody, Julie Meredith and Patty Miller.
“Across the board I’m proud that I can personally help people get better because what I do is about injury prevention and performance,” Jones said. “Since it’s just starting we’re going to tweak it as the months go on, but maybe we’ll have to change things up to keep people excited and motivated.”
The LRU/Library team members are Wilma Hairston, Lisa George, Sheryl Kunisaki, and Jol Valencia.
“I won’t be competing in the challenge but I am the coordinator for the team,” Ed Martinez, Public Access Librarian said.
The Facilitators team members are Ora Bryant, Tom Brown, Luis Bonilla, Donald Rile, Steve Marselle, and Keith Pipkin.
